A traveler dead in an aqueduct, a poet stabbed at a river bank, both bloodless. A man, out of his mind, captured while trying to kill a merchant and his family, with strange marks on his neck, like gashes from leeches. All of this happening in the same valley, all of them close to the same river. The testimonies show that the perpetrator of the different murders was not a single person, however, as the witnesses said, they were all wearing the same garment…
…a “regal cape”, embroidered with multicolored threads.
All the victims have not a drop of blood, their eyes are sunken into their skull, their expression is one of loss and, upon closer inspection, small puncture wounds cover their skin.
The man, caught in the attempted murder of the merchant and his family, only remembers one voice, one desire: to take everything from the lucky merchant. When asked if he wanted to steal the merchant's money, he replied, “his fortune, his happiness, his luck and destiny”. Surprised like everyone else at his words, he remained silent, as if they had not come out of his mouth.
On the skin of the back of his neck, this man has wounds like those found on the corpses. He touches them repeatedly, and always, when he does so, he complains about how cold the cell is. There is no blanket or fur that can take away this sensation, he always asks for more cloth to cover his back, as if mad from cold.
Rumors, tales, and testimonies
All of these terrible events reminded me of a strange tale I read as a child, the story of a precious garment that attracted the gaze of whoever found it, as a promise of a better fortune, to then curse whoever wore it to have an insatiable hunger for treasure and power.
One of the witnesses from the town, an old drunkard, confirmed that she saw a beautiful cape, crawling like a snake, towards the river bank, she said she felt drawn to it, to follow it, to take it, but that she was too drunk to keep track of it.
A kid helped me to complete the picture of what happened, they said that they saw the man, the one caught in the attempted murder of the merchant, rowing down the river, the kid said to have followed him from a distance because the man had a cat with him. “Then”, the kid said, “he felt to the water, just like that, and the cat had to swim, I looked for it, the cat, I mean my Miss, but from the shore he, the man, appeared with something like a blanket in his hand, I got scared, he looked at me as if he wanted to say something bad, I just ran”.
With all this in my mind, I tracked down that old tale, and traced it back to its source, a sort of treatise on peculiar objects. There they talk about the regal cape.
“When near to water, and in front of the new victims, the cape leaves the body of the killer, leaving them with only a sense of madness, loss, and confusion. Then it crawls to reach the dead bodies, covering them, and new threads expand the embroidery on the cape. No blood is left on the bodies. These new threads, are the luck and fates of the victims, and are the material from which the cape weaves the promises and visions with which it lures any unfortunate soul that finds the cape floating on the river. Then, it returns to the water, to float away, waiting for a new host, with new promises, just a regal cape floating on a river”.
Alchemical uses:
The cape is possessed by a spirit, which can only be extracted by exposing it to a bath of mercury vapor. Only a willing spirit will wander away using the vapor as a medium, so the cape has to be continuously damaged, with small cuts, while being bathed in the mercury steam to push the spirit away. The wandering spirit can be dangerous and can have the intention of possessing another being or object.
With a spirit-free cape, the threads of the colorful embroidery can be carefully removed, each one of which stores the memories, desires, and knowledge of all victims of the cape. These threads, mixed with gold dust and ground crow bone inside a flask of wine spirit, begin to dissolve into a multicolored liquid. This liquid transfers all the memories that the thread stored, to whom drinks it. They fade in one day.
If a series of bracelets are woven with all the threads of the embroidery, the wearer will appear as a familiar face to any beholder, not a close friend, not someone particularly trustworthy, but someone they vaguely remember seeing in the past.
Possessed by the Regal cape
Agility 4 (speed 80 feet / 5 actions per turn)
Actions:
- Quick stab (2d6)
- Strong tackle (1d6, grapple, save STR)
- Slit the throat (2d10, requires grapple)
Into the Odd / Weird North / Cairn:
STR 12 – DEX 12 – WILL 9 – 10 HP – Armour 1
Critical damage: A thread it’s drawn out of the body, and it’s absorbed by the cape. Loose one good memory.
DnD:
AC 15 – 20 HP (10+2d10) – Save DC 16
To hit: Melee +3, Range +3 Damage: Melee +1 (+10 to “slit the throat”), Range +1
STR 12 – DEX 12 – CON 12 – INT 9 – WIS 9 – CHA 9
Immunity to being charm.
Vulnerable to radiant
Damage Types: Quick stab (piercing), Strong tackle (bludgeoning), Slit the throat (slashing).
Regal cape
Agility 4 (speed 80 feet / 5 actions per turn)
Actions:
- Free the possessed
- Color Camouflage (save Will/WIS or is invisible)
- Wrap and Suffocate (1d6, STR save, grapple and suffocate on fail)
- Posses (requires grapple, need to kill for money and out of envy)
Into the Odd / Weird North / Cairn:
STR 14 – DEX 12 – WILL 10 – 15 HP – Armour 1
Critical damage: Posses by the cape.
DnD:
AC 18 – 20 HP (10+2d10) – Save DC 16
To hit: Melee +5, Range +3 Damage: Melee +3, Range +3
STR 14 – DEX 12 – CON 14 – INT 10 – WIS 10 – CHA 10
Immunity to being charm, bludgeoning and force.
Vulnerable to fire and slashing.
Damage Types: Wrap and Suffocate (bludgeoning).